Hard Currency

Rating:
Summary: Cuban Crime and Russian Pursuit
Review: Assigned to investigate a murder in Havana, Cuba by a Russian citizen working with the Cuban government, Moscow Police Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov journeys to the island capital with junior detective Elena Timofeyeva. Rostnikov's preliminary investigation reveals that there were others who wanted the murdered woman dead. Following the thin leads that he has, believing that someone has framed Igor Shememkov in an effort to discredit his country, Rostnikov steps into the dangerous underbelly of the city and comes face to face with a religious group that practices African Santeria. Meanwhile, back in Moscow, police detectives Emil Karpo and Sasha Tkach pursue a serial killer who has killed and mutilated over forty victims. Karp and Tkach are up against the lack of manpower and a kill zone that spreads across the city. And in only a short time, the sadistic killer known as Case 341 and as Tahpor marks Karpo for death.

Stuart Kaminsky's HARD CURRENCY is the ninth novel of the Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series. Other books in the series include DEATH OF A DISSIDENT, BLACK KNIGHT ON RED SQUARE, RED CHAMELEON, THE MAN WHO WALKED LIKE A BEAR, and MURDER ON THE TRANS-SIBERIAN EXPRESS. In additions, Kaminsky also writes the Toby Peters Hollywood private eye series set in the 1940s during Tinseltown's heyday. He also does the Abe Lieberman police detective novels set in Chicago, and has written two novels about Lewis Fonesca, a process server in Sarasota, Florida.

One of Kaminsky's favorite writers appears to be Ed McBain, the author of the 87th Precinct novels set in Isola, New York, which is basically New York City. In the Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov novels, Kaminsky weaves the police procedural novel into the Russian tapestry, bringing the readers into close contact with the Moscow police investigators, their families, and their fears. The cases both sets of detectives undertake are well thought out and expose a lot of culture and beliefs for the reader to think about. Kaminsky's writing is solid and entertaining, mixing bits of history, geography, and culture in the narrative as well as the dialogue while never losing sight of the chase and the mystery. Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov and his crew of inspectors all emerge as human and fallible, with touching insights into their lives.

As well done and well researched as the novel was, the characters and the cases come across a little too thin with not enough meat. Rostnikov and his crew go through the motions of the investigations, but too little seems at stake.

Fans of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels will enjoy the stories Kaminsky has written about Rostnikov and the Moscow police department. Also, regular readers of Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko series also set in Russia will enjoy an additional look at that country, the politics that drive it, and the everyday life of those who live there.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not his best
Review: Kaminsky assumes that the reader is a regular follower of Rostinkov, Karpo, Sacha and friends and provides little to enhance his usual exploration of their characters. The setting of Havana is well developed; but, the parallel plots - a murder by a Russian diplomat in Havana, and a Moscow serial killer - are in no way related. Kaminsky has pushed the 2 ideas together under one cover without integrating them.

Rating:
Summary: Incorporates the crime motifs, but transcends them.
Review: Marvelous tale of Havana and Moscow with Kaminsky's collection of carefully developed and in-depth detectives and fleshed-out other characters. Socialists and most liberals won't like the novel's honest and forthright portrayal of a fetid Havana--some socialist/communist pipedreams and delusion die hard. The plots were interesting and the development of Karpo's character was enjoyable and intriguing. The villain in Moscow was depicted multi-dimensionally--I could feel viscerally and emotionally the psychosis which enslaved him, conflicted him, and evoked sympathy from this reader at least. The description of the "cult" and its members in Havana was awesome. When people are virtual slaves, these kinds of secret societies have to evolve so that the slaves can have something to live for. Kaminsky writes effortlessly and at times beautifully. Also, unlike so many suspense/crime books, I felt as though I was learning more about other people and also examining and questioning myself and my values, affections etc. Highly recommended

Rating:
Summary: good stories, but no tour book of Havana
Review: While some readers disliked that the two plots never intersected, I didn't mind that. Both were excellent, suspenseful crime stories.

What did bother me was the minor errors in the Havana portion. The practitioners of the religion brought to Cuba by Yorubas are called "santeros," not "santerias." "Santeria" is the name of the religion. I was in La Floridita in November 2000, and it didn't resemble the description in the book. It is my understanding that the bar -- basically, a shrine to Ernest Hemingway -- is unchanged from the 1940s. There were some other faulty descriptions. It's as if Kaminsky's never been to Cuba but got muddled descriptions second-hand. It makes me wonder how true to life his Russia is.